


You could be my enemy

by CynicismFollows



Series: My Enemy [3]
Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, One-Shot, Prince Cardan POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 15:36:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14264175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CynicismFollows/pseuds/CynicismFollows
Summary: Cardan's POV of the salted food and the scene by the water. Implicit one-sided Cardan/Jude. Title is from 'My Enemy' by CHVRCHES ft. Matt Berninger.





	You could be my enemy

**Author's Note:**

> Covers the end of chapter 5 and most of chapter 7 from Cardan's POV. At this point Cardan thinks Locke is messing around with Jude, not Taryn. This one goes a little bit more into his attraction to Jude, although he's still grossed out by it, obviously. As far as I can tell Jude putting salt in their food is the first really open act of aggression she's made against them, so this has a lot to do with how Cardan processes this change in their dynamic.

The first bite of salt is a shock. It’s corrosive, and my mouth immediately fills with bile and blood as I splutter, but for a moment all I can feel is surprise. Looking over at Jude is a reflex. To my mind insubordination is a concept indelibly linked to her. Yet even as my eyes move, I can’t really believe that she’s responsible. She is presumptuous, and can never conceal how little respect she has for me. Still, I had never imagined her to be so overbold as to attack me directly. But she smirks at me, triumphant, and I know that something has changed, has spurred her to this challenge. My blood runs hot, I am angry, yet this defiance only serves to demonstrate how much brighter she shines than those around her, and my hatred is choked by that awful fascination she inspires.

What has changed, of course can only be whatever stupid thing she’s doing with Locke. The thought of that sends my stomach rolling again, and I spit my mouth clear for a final time, my eyes meeting Jude’s directly. She wants to be my enemy, which is a poor choice. It shouldn’t be too hard to show her how grievously she has misstepped. I turn back to the others, and see that Valerian is ready to jump up and attack Jude this instant. ‘Sit down,’ I hiss.

‘She just–’

‘We’ll deal with it after school. Don’t be an idiot.’ He doesn’t relax, but the urgent energy in his form dissipates, and he’s clearly not going to fly off the handle this second. I look at Locke, who appears to have recovered and seems more pleased about this turn of events than he should. ‘Your new paramour lacks manners,’ I say.

‘You did dose their food first.’

‘She is not one of us. There are different standards of behaviour.’

‘Of course,’ he inclines his head, but he’s still infuriatingly self-satisfied. I don’t know why he’s messing around with Jude, except if it’s just to hurt Nicasia, and annoy me. Even so, to touch someone that low–

I don’t let myself finish that thought. I look at Nicasia and see that although her fury is resplendent, there is a brittleness to it that I don’t like. She’s still surprised by Locke’s turning from her, and this new evidence of it is grating. She sends him a scathing glance, before turning back to me, pasting on a smirk. ‘We can teach them both about how they should treat their betters.’

‘I could choke the breath right out of her, and her morsel of a sister,’ Valerian growls.

‘That would be over too fast,’ she objects.

‘Not how I’d do it.’

‘And why should you get all the fun? I think I’d like to see them drowned by nixies. Brought down by some pathetic water sprites.’

‘Killing them seems like an overreaction,’ says Locke. ’What’s got you so upset about this, anyway Nicasia? You’re losing your dignity over a little prank.’

Nicasia seems ready to really lose her dignity, and I break in, ‘We don’t have to kill them, necessarily. Threatening them is probably all we need to do before they back down. And if they don’t…’ I don’t really want to kill either of them, but this compromise seems to satisfy all three of them, to some degree.

We plan out how we’ll do it, and decide to go with Nicasia’s suggestion of pushing them into the river after all. Valerian still seems to hope that this will end with two dead mortals, but as much could be said about most things, with him. Locke is being frustratingly laissez faire about the situation. He isn’t offended by the slight, but not worried for Jude either, which is typical. He left Nicasia for some stupid mortal, but not because he truly cares about her. That would be disgusting, but at least it would make some justification. The idea of scaring Jude and making her recognise that she can’t treat me this way is appealing. She is acting as though she has the right to claim me as her enemy, though she is so far beneath me. Just because she’s parted her thighs for Locke doesn’t mean she can assume that we’re equals, especially not when the very idea of them together is repellant. She is simply unworthy of my attention.

—————

They leave without any particular caution. Jude has been sending me taunting looks all afternoon as she responds easily to the questions posed in class. As though by parroting enough correct answers she can ever earn a place here. Her sister chides her as they walk home. I’ve never paid much attention to Taryn Duarte, and I am not impressed as I listen to her. She also thinks that we should be ‘taught manners’, that we are not better than them. Yet she has more sense or less courage than her sister, and realises that they should not be challenging us. Although she’s right, she seems like a desaturated reflection of Jude; the same social climbing impertinence, without any of the fire that lends to Jude her potency.

We have agreed that Locke will grab Taryn, and I Jude. I fear that if either Valerian or Nicasia got their hands on them they’d tear their heads off before throwing them to the nixies. I smother her mouth with one hand, while with the other I clasp both of hers. She struggles, and I have to release her mouth to grab her waist and keep her from running. She screams, Valerian whoops and Nicasia and I laugh. Locke whispers something to Taryn and I don’t catch it. I had made sure I would get Jude, since he couldn’t be trusted with her, but it looks like he might have a more generalised predilection towards mortal girls. For some reason this is more annoying, and I throw Jude into the river with great force to release my irritation.

After a moment both girls rise up from the water, thoroughly drenched. Jude has mud streaked down her face, and reeds and muck tangled in her hair. All the same, her dress clings distractingly to her breasts, and I wish for a moment that we’d decided on a different punishment, though I cannot look away. Valerian and Nicasia taunt them both, and Locke helps to destroy their belongings. I just gaze at Jude, who has already gathered herself together, calling out to me, ‘Is this fun? Are you enjoying yourselves?’ She hardly seems shaken, as though she can win this through debate, as though nothing I can do would ever frighten or impress her.

‘Enormously,’ I respond, reminding myself of how she shrieked when I first grabbed her, how she writhed in my arms. I did surprise her, did make her fear me. And she will admit it before long. I look pointedly at the nixies in warning.

She just struggles across the river towards her sister, then slips and goes under. Nicasia and Valerian are pleased, Locke impassive, Taryn terrified. I move forward almost unconsciously, thinking that she might just be stupid enough to drown herself, when her head resurfaces. The sisters cling to each other, and Jude, for some reason, reaches deep into the water. I think she’s going to fall again, but she just pulls up a rock, waving it threateningly. She looks absurd, and I have no idea what she hopes to accomplish with it. I’ll have to end this quickly.

‘Quit,’ I tell her. ‘You should never have been tutored with us. Abandon thoughts of the tourney, tell Madoc you don’t belong with us, your betters. Do that, and I’ll save you.’ I use the word ‘save’ to rub in her helplessness, but it instantly conjures an all too appealing image. I remind myself why I have to do this. I have to get Jude to leave so I don’t see her every afternoon. To keep her away from Nicasia and Locke so that nonsense can be finished. To make sure she can’t make me feel anything. ‘All you have to do, is give in. Easy.’

Her eyes go to her sister’s, and she doesn’t look back at me as she says, ‘And you’ll save Taryn too?’

I hate that she won’t look at me, even as she teeters on the brink of surrender. I hate that she’s turning this humiliation into an opportunity to flaunt her close relationship with her family. ’Oh, so you’ll do what I say for her sake? Does that feel noble?’ She doesn’t move, doesn’t speak. ‘Well, does it?’

She looks down at the water, still not catching my gaze. ‘Why don’t you tell me how you want me to feel?’

Her words conjure more ideas, temptations she has no notion she is inspiring. Despite the clinging clothes, she really doesn’t look her best, yet I can still picture her feeling as I want her to… Angry, I push the thoughts aside. ‘Interesting,’ I move closer. ‘There are so few children in Faerie that I’ve never seen one of us twin. Is it like being doubled? Or more like being divided in half?’ She doesn’t respond to my taunt, and I decide that this will be a good way to show her that she doesn’t have true loyalty from her family. She is alone, and any love others may have for her is a weak shadow. She can rely only on herself, and she is nothing.

‘Twin sister!’ I shift the direction of my words, though not their real focus. ‘Would you make a similar sacrifice? Let’s find out. I have a most generous offer for you. Climb up on the bank, and kiss me on both my cheeks. Once that’s done, so long as you don’t defend your sister by word or deed, I won’t hold you accountable for her defiance. Now, isn’t that a good bargain? But you get it only if you come to us now, and leave her there to drown. Show her that she’ll always be alone.’

She’s tempted, that is immediately obvious. Jude has only to offer her the slightest assurance and she acquiesces. Valerian lifts her out of the water, and hands her to me. She shakes as she touches her lips to my skin in some gesture of a kiss without substance or pressure. She is pathetic, but that is how mortals should be. Jude is something else, a mortal who thinks she can be equal to faeries, that she may conduct herself on her own terms. That is an abomination, and one I should find less engaging than I do. My eyes remain locked on hers.

‘Say, “I forsake my sister Jude. I won’t help her, I don’t even like her.”’ Nicasia viciously doubles down on my challenge.

‘I don’t have to say that. That wasn’t part of the bargain,’ Taryn offers a measly defiance, based only on the rules I laid out. We all laugh at her weak notions of loyalty. I’m sure that she would have said it, if I had made it a condition. I could still make her. I hope Jude realises that. I want to make sure she does.

‘Your sister abandoned you. See what we can do with a few words? And everything can get so much worse. We can enchant you to run around on all fours, barking like a dog. We can curse you to wither away, for want of a song you’ll never hear again or a kind word from my lips. We’re not mortal. We will break you. You’re a fragile little thing, we hardly need to try. Give up.’ I want her to. I _do_. I know that if she does she’ll be losing some of what drew me to her in the first place, but that is how it should be. I should not be drawn to her.

‘Never,’ she says, and it chafes against the persistent irritation she causes. I don’t know why her brashness is so fascinating, especially when it is so ill-informed. All her defiance is meaningless, as long as she has no idea what her declarations even signify.

‘“Never”? Never is like forever, too big for mortals to comprehend.’ She’s shivering in the water, still flinching as nixies swim past, although she is close enough to the bank now that she should be safe. She looks as though she has been shaken by all this, and yet there is still no apology, no frightened withdrawal, no realisation of just how greatly she has erred. ‘Think on this. All through your long, sodden, shameful walk home. Think on your answer. This is the least of what we can do.’

As we turn and leave I hope that this might have accomplished my goal, have made her decide to drop out. Yet I already doubt it. I think I may simply have given all her impotent fury and petulance an irresistible target. By confronting her like this, showing how much I want her to break, I may have made her my enemy.

**Author's Note:**

> I was planning to write a different POV for my second post, but Cardan has a magnetic pull! Also, the other piece I was working on was Taryn's POV, which was a lot harder! I do want to mention that although Cardan's take on Taryn is pretty dismissive, I find her pretty sympathetic, so don't take his word as my analysis of her. I want this series to show how the different characters' perceptions of each other may be incomplete or misleading.


End file.
